Linked Header

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

A lawsuit that has been dragging on for years will come to a head next month.

The city's pension board is suing former city councillor John Ferguson for accusing the board trustees of acting illegally and not for asking questions about the city's financially beleaguered pension plan.

The
Provincial Pharmacists Association agrees with Finance Minister Blaine
Higgs' comments that the methadone program is growing with no end in
sight.Executive Director Paul Blanchard says there is no program in place right aimed at preventing the spread of addiction.

Blanchard tells CHSJ News a prescription monitoring program in needed.

He says
as we speak a physician is writing a prescription for oxycontin and a
pharmacist is filling it in the absence of information adding they need a
prescription monitoring program in order to allow pharmacists to do
their jobs effectively.

Blanchard says in April of last year dispensing fees for methadone patients were reduced by 50 per cent.

Theo Fleury is in Saint John to talk about his valiant struggle to wholeness after being sexually abused by his coach in junior hockey followed by alcoholism, drug abuse and promiscuity.

The retired NHL'er is the guest speaker tonight at the Muriel McQueen Fergusson Foundation dinner in the Trade and Convention Centre and his message will be no matter how far down the ladder you fall, you can always make it back up.

Fleury says the best part is to see people who are beaten and broken repair their lives.

He doesn't give his junior coach Graham James, who's facing criminal charges, any thought and admits not having a whole lot of faith in the Canadian justice system.

Provincial Finance Minister Blaine Higgs is sending a strong message to M-L-A's about how NB Power should be run..........Quit messing about with it.Higgs says he and other M-L-A's have all be approached about getting people jobs at NB Power which is why it has run into financial problems but now the utility has a 10 year business plan in place to reduce its footprint and debt ratio.

He warns running it like a business is the only way NB Power will survive.

That 5-vehicle pile up on the MacKay this morning ended up looking worse than it actually was -- lots of damage but no injuries. The RCMP telling us there were actually two separate crashes - the first involving three vehicles - the second with two and they say the second crackup was a result of the first. No word on whether any charges will be laid in the aftermath.

In the effort to reduce the growing provincial deficit, Finance Minister Blaine Higgs says government programmes will have to be analysed to determine if they're effective.

Higgs makes mention of the methadone programme which he says has 14 hundred people getting treatment with no end in sight.Higgs says healthcare needs a major overhaul after being been told more than once there's enough money for healthcare but it's being managed poorly.

He also maintains roads have been built which aren't really needed but they were seen as vote getters on election day.